On 15/12/05, Mark Benson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 14 Dec 2005, at 22:45, Rob Rait wrote: > > > I've just acquired a B/W G3 450 with 704Mb RAM running OS 9.0.4. It's > > my first Mac (after years of PC ownership and working with them from > > 9-5) so please be gentle with me... > > > > Is it worth investigating the possibility of installing OS 10.4 on > > this machine, or will that be too much for the processor? > > My advice is invest in a cheap copy of OS X 10.3 (Panther NOT Tiger).
Big Snip of lots of useful advice - Thanks to all who replied. I seem to have acquired a DVD containing an 'evaluation' copy of Tiger from a colleague. Now I'm going to have to rip the DVD-ROM out of the PC and stick it in the Mac... I'll give this a go whilst I'm off over Xmas and see how (in)tolerable it is - the extra RAM in this box should be enough to give it a fighting chance of running at a reasonable pace. My main reason for getting the Mac is to use a my primary Internet-facing machine. On the PC I'm running 3 firewalls (wireless router, XP built in and a software one) 2 anti-spyware apps and an anti-virus app. I shouldn't have to go to these extremes! So I probably won't need much in the way of brute processing power. It looks as if I'll be able to turn off the bells and whistles that I don't want in X and I'll be able to run Firefox/Thunderbird which are absolute essentials for me (which is why I am looking at Linux). I'm using Google Mail for this forum 'cos I can get to it whilst I'm at work <G>. The machine has a Macally extended keyboard and a Macally scroll wheel mouse, so I've got all the 'funny' keys to play with. The SCSI card is whatever Apple shoved in it when it was new - it's got the thin 50-pin connector at the back. The SCSI discs are IBM models. The machine came with a Formac GA 12 graphics card, but unfortunately no drivers (Control Panel?) for it. I can't find anything on the Formac site for this model, so I've got a ticket lodged with them, but I'm not hopeful for a reply from what I've read about their after sales service on other sites/forums. I understand that there's no OSX support for this card, so I may have to invest in something else. Is there anyone out there who could point me at somewhere I could download even an out-of-date driver for OS9.x as the screen display seems a bit sluggish when using the mouse scroll wheel. I'll have a browse through the IDE controller notes as suggested to find out which one I've got. The machine's about 4 years old (the driver CD for the mouse has "Fall 2002" printed on it) and the seller told me that he bought the box, keyboard and mouse at the same time, so hopefully it'll be the Rev 2 version. Many thanks for the advice/guidance offered so far, I'm learning fast but something like this is an invaluable resource. Cheers, Rob -- So many cats So few recipes... -- Mac UK is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac UK list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/mac-uk.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-uk%40mail.maclaunch.com/> iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com
